Live Life Without Fear

"You are a physician in Cleveland, you are a Libertarian, and you are running for President? Are you serious?" Yes, I am.

"You have to put together a large and expensive campaign team." No, I don't.

"You have to raise a lot of money." No, I won't.

"You have to make friends with wealthy and powerful people." No, I don't like them and I doubt they will like me.

1980 graduate of Northwestern University with a major in Philosophy, Phi Beta Kappa.

Medical School at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Master's degree in Health Finance and Manangement from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Life Member of the Delta Omega public health honor society.

Practiced anesthesiology at Johns Hopkins for 11 years.

Recruited to the Cleveland Clinic in 1998.

I am lucky to be married to my beautiful wife Anne, with our boys Aaron and Abram 2012 and 2013 graduates of the Ohio State University, and our youngest son Andrew. It has been two years since our cherished son, Alec, passed away from cancer at age 16. Alec taught me that we must live life without fear, and all my efforts are in honor of his loving memory.

We are in trouble. Big government, big spending, big debt, and big money lead to less freedom, less security, less opportunity, and less hope. Who is really to blame? We all are. We let this happen. Congress has the lowest approval ratings, but they get re-elected time after time.

Not voting doesn't help either. I understand non-voters. I was born in Washington, DC, but I never registered to vote until I was 50 years old. I thought the whole system was corrupt, and I did not see any way to do anything about it. In 2009 I discovered the Libertarian Party, the party of principle. But the old tactics of fundraising and campaigning did not work. We even asked ourselves, if we won and came to power, would we be any different?

We have to be different, and we can be. Technology makes it possible. Political campaigning is communication. The cost of mass communication has gone from millions of dollars to almost nothing. The Libertarian Party needed a candidate to run for Ohio Attorney General, and although I am a physician, not an attorney, I agreed to help. I used the opportunity to test campaign technology. For less than $200, I made the following TV commercial and aired over 100 times on Digital Cable:

I had a lot of fun making this video. The bright light made me squint and look angrier.

Spending no money and with very little campaigning, I received over 100,000 votes. Campaigning does not have to cost a lot of money. Together we can prove that votes are not for sale.

Create an account

Activate your account

I’ve been thinking about what to say here. While my registered party affiliation is one of the two “main” parties I am, and believe that, I am Libertarian. I like you and do believe that you would be a great President. One thing is absolute and that is this country cannot run the way it has the past 7 years (and honestly, even longer); but especially the previous Presidential term.

There is a lot at stake as we all know with upcoming potential Supreme Court nominations and somehow the Justice system seems to really decide for the entire country.

Do not buy votes… I agree. Do not “get in bed” with interest groups… I agree.

The “rules” have changed and as truly unfortunate as it is, money for a Presidential campaign is what’s required today. While a strong “grassroots” campaign has proven over the past 8 years alone it IS effective there still is a need of some type of funding. Sad as it is, that is fact. Not the crazy money that the “blue” and “red” spend but there are costs for a campaign.

I would be happy to start a grassroots effort in South Florida and be a part of a successful Libertarian leader whose values match mine… without compromise to either “blue” or “red”. I think it’s what most Libertarians hope to happen along with me.

Forgive me for not knowing the size of the party however I’d like to ask how strong the party is to support a Presidential campaign for 2016?

@amanda Tipple. Vaccinations are good. Forced vaccinations are not good. The problem is not that parents don’t trust vaccines. The problem is that parents don’t trust their physicians. We physicians need to work on that.
When plants are genetically modified to make them less expensive and to improve profits, I oppose them. Cheap, high caloric density, addictive food contributes to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure.